Today, the ASA and ExpressJet MECs met at ALPA National headquarters in Herndon, Va., at the invitation of ALPA President, Capt. Lee Moak. The purpose of the meeting was to review where we are in the merger process and provide an opportunity to interact with our new management team.
We spent nearly two and half hours with Skywest Inc. President Chip Childs, ExpressJet COO Alex Marren, and ExpressJet VP of Flight Operations Capt. Brad Sheehan. They offered realistic views on the regional industry’s future, and emphasized that they are committed to creating a viable, sustainable, and healthy company moving forward. We were pleased with management’s frankness and perceived a completely different attitude towards addressing our issues, managing the operation, and concluding negotiations.
After management left, we spent the remainder of the afternoon with ALPA Executive Vice Presidents Capts. Larry Beck and Scott Smetana, discussing how best to proceed forward in joint negotiations.
The plan for the near future is to set up a meeting between our JNC and the company’s negotiators to better understand management’s views for concluding negotiations. The MECs will then review those findings and provide direction to our negotiators.
In Unity,
Your MECs and your JNC

Last week both MEC chairmen attended the regularly scheduled Executive Board meeting and the Executive Council meetings at the ALPA offices in Herndon, VA. The Executive Board is made up of all 31 ALPA MEC chairmen, while the Executive Council consists of the nine ALPA Executive Vice-Presidents and the four national officers.

Executive Council Meeting

Both Capt. Tony Middendorff and Capt. Dave Allen addressed the Executive Council about the status of joint negotiations and the current challenges both sides are experiencing as they navigate towards a single agreement. The Executive Council received the reports of both chairmen on the state of affairs and the MECs’ plans moving forward, the Executive Council interacted vigorously with the chairmen on these issues in executive session.

Executive Board Meeting

ALPA’s Executive Board met in Herndon, VA last week, receiving updates from the Association’s national officers on union activities and preparing policies for a vote by ALPA’s Board of Directors this October.

As part of the meeting’s agenda, MEC chairmen offered an inside look at their pilot groups’ recent activities. In addition, Executive Board members broke into four delegate committees to discuss proposed resolutions and strategic planning initiatives. Capt. Roger White (DAL), a member of the ALPA Strategic Planning Committee, explained that ALPA Executive Board members would be responsible for reviewing the current strategic planning report and discussing it with fellow delegates to make sure the Association is on track with its strategic goals.

Last week the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) met for a two-day mediated session with the company and NMB mediator. During the session the JNC presented to the Company a non-concessionary JCBA proposal that sought improvements in those areas of the rejected TA that pilots in polls, survey results and other forms of feedback had indicated were concessionary or unacceptable.

Discussions among the participants were spirited. Your JNC reiterated that the clear will of both pilot groups was that the JCBA must not be concessionary for either group. The company maintained that the opening proposal would significantly exceed the rest of the fee-for-departure industry, would ensure a more rapid decline in the company’s financial position, and would make it unable to secure future flying. This led to discussions between the JNC and company about different views of what constituted concessions and what cost structure the company should accept. The parties also frankly discussed the difficulties of reaching an agreement that was acceptable to the company without being concessionary for either pilot group.

In the face of these obstacles, the Company stated that making its own comprehensive proposal at that time would likely be counter-productive to reaching agreement. Nonetheless, the company reaffirmed its commitment to reaching a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA) in an expeditious timeframe and agreed to re-engage in negotiations the week of July 21st.

In the meantime, the JNC will continue to discuss with both MECs potential ways to address these obstacles and reach a JCBA in an expeditious timeframe.